If you are planning to be ONLY in DOS mode, then option one has few
choices. Only the ATI 'all in wonder' cards will come up in TV mode
in DOS. All the others (AFAIK) require the winblows driver to be
running.
The ATI card autosense a connection on it's video out connector and
automatically comes up in the appropriate refresh rate.

The ATI card also fiddles with the color burst phase to remove 'dot
crawl'
which can make graphics blurry. (Don't know if it does this in PAL mode
since PAL is more picky about it's line to line phasing).

I wonder why you can't run the program in a DOS box in Winblows.
Winblows
does a really good job of 'virtualizing' the I/O ports, and if you go
the the DOS prompt properties you can give the program 'exclusive' use
of the ports, and high enough priority that it shouldn't screw up.
Have you also tried 'booting to DOS' which usually leaves the winblows
device drivers in place?

The ELSA synergy video card has a neat feature in that you can run
Windows 9x, and have the video output come from any ONE subwindow,
including a DOS box (or the whole screen).

Remember that encoded video (PAL or NTSC) has substantially LESS
resolution
than your basic VGA screen. Unless the text is quite fat, it will be
UNREADABLE, particularly if you distribute it as RF rather than base
band
video. (NTSC RF BW is 4Mhz, about 240 lines of resolution, vs the 320
(since its 'cycles' of resolution) of a 640 pixel wide display. PAL RF
is about the same. Only SECAM has better RF bandwidth because the
encoding
scheme is much different.


1-C would be, point a good quality camera at a good monitor, and
distribute
that signal. The camera optical system then performs the antialiasing
function. You'd want an older, tube type camera because it's longer
persistance will mask out the banding flicker that you usually see with
CCD cameras pointed at monitors. (Or use are really MODERN CCD camera
which has a 'low speed' sutter (15Hz).

3-C If your venue is small enough get one of those 'TV Rabbit' type of
signal rebroadcasting devices (like used to 'view your VCR/DTH anywhere
in the house) ($50US) and ship the signal to the TV's over-the-air in
the UHF
band.

Have fun, and be sure to test the system well before race day.

"Gennette, Bruce" wrote:
>
> Several problems here -
>
> 1. Turning 25line x 80char x 16colour text video display into domestic video
> 2. Turning video into a TV channel
> 3. Transporting the TV signal all around your venue
>
> For 1. You have to buy a VGA-to-video converter, you have several choices,
> the best being a video card with TV out, next best is a presentation quality
> external VGA-to-video converter
> For 2. You could buy a dedicated modulation unit, but every video recorder
> has one already built in . . . [Attach a TV antenna to the VCR too to make
> the system more user friendly - everyone can watch the news while waiting
> for the races to start]
> For 3. You need either -
>         A. For a few short, separate runs, a distribution amplifier (store
> bought about US$50, home built about US$25), a 4 way splitter and a maximum
> of 100m of co-axial cable (75ohm).
>         B. For a single long cable run with multiple taps along it, a
> powerful distribution amplifier, and a series of progressively weaker 'T'
> taps and up to 500m of co-ax.  This system amplifies the signal way above
> what a TV can handle to pump it through to the end of the cable, so each tap
> has to divide the signal into a full strength pass-through and a reduced
> strength local signal.  All unused taps (and the end of the cable) need a
> 75ohm terminator fitted to avoid unwanted reflections of the TV signal.
>
> 3.B. is the best method.  If you go this route you will need to study
> distribution (not hard) to work out what values each tap should be.  I would
> also suggest making the cable runs a permanent installation, so buy good
> quality (not domestic) co-ax.
>
> Bye.
>
>         -----Original Message-----
>         From:   Graham North [SMTP:graham.north@LANDINST.COM]
>         Sent:   Thursday, 25 May 2000 18:39
>         To:     PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
>         Subject:        [OT]:Video card output in dos?
>
>         Hi all.
>
>         You may remember a post by me asking how many monitors could be
> powered from
>         one graphics card.  Well I am still playing with multiple monitors.
>
>         Here is my problem.
>
>         I race model cars and my local club is holding a regional event in a
> couple
>         of weeks.  The software used runs in dos (it needs total control of
> the com
>         ports).  We would like to have monitors around the track for the
> refs and
>         spectators.
>
>         There is a system we could buy but it would cost over #400.
>
>         My friend suggested the idea of using a TV card with an analogue
> output and
>         send the picture via coax to portable TV's set up around the track.
>
>         What I am trying to ask is whether there will be an output from the
> card
>         while the dos software is running?
>
>         Sorry for the long post, hope someone can help me on this.  If you
> have any
>         other ideas how I could do this then please let me know.
>
>         Thanks
>
>         Graham North